Board rules

These rules are disclosed to clarify the various responsibilities of all community members here on AusRotary. They shall be adhered to by everyone to ensure that our board runs smoothly and provides a fun and productive experience for all of our community members and visitors.

GENERAL FORUM RULES

General

Please check here from time to time as rules may be updated from time to time according to the forum's needs. It is your responsibility to ensure you are familiar with the forum's rules. #

If you only read one rule, read this one:

Use common sense - err on the side of caution. If you think something could be inappropriate, it probably is. If you think a comment might inflame a topic or cause insult to someone else, it probably will. So don't. Would you speak like that to someone in real life? If not, don't. Most sections of this forum are publicly displayed, so if you don't want your comments to come back and haunt you, don't put it up - simple.#

Usernames & accounts

You must not allow other people to post from your account. The Administrators and Moderators reserve the right to assume that if a banned user posts from your account, you and that user are the same person, and will deal with your account accordingly. #

You must not use any technique to obscure your true identity from other forum users and the forum administrators and moderators. Access to this forum from proxies and tunnels is prohibited. #

Posting under multiple usernames is dishonest.The Administrators and Moderators reserve the right to ban users who surreptitiously create additional accounts, or use the forum in a way which obscures the true person posting information on the forum. #

I'm having trouble with my account - can I create a new account? From time to time, users are locked out of their account, usually due to making changes and not receiving an activation email due to their email address being out of date. This can usually be fixed quickly and easily. If you are locked out of your account, please read THIS or use the Contact Us form#

Avatars & Signature Images

Content: Avatars and signature images will appear in every forum in which you post. Because it may be difficult for other users to avoid seeing your avatar or signature, these images are subject to much tighter restrictions than images embedded into a single post. All avatars and signature images must be suitable for viewing in an office or family environment. This means no images of a sexually suggestive nature, and no images that are generally offensive or disturbing (such as depictions of violence or gore). Please note that an image does not have to be explicitly revealing to be of a sexually suggestive nature. Prohibited images include bikini pics, lingerie shots, or any photo focusing inappropriately on body parts. Users frequently view these forums from work environments or public places and any image which we feel uncomfortable viewing at work will be removed. #

Image sizes: Avatars are limited to a maximum size of 150 pixels wide by 150 pixels high, and a maximum filesize of 250KiB. Signatures are limited to a maximum size of 600 pixels wide by 125 pixels high, and a maximum filesize of 256KB. This includes all text in your signature as well, so an image 125 pixels high cannot be combined with lines of text. The forum software will prevent you from using avatars or signature images which contravene these rules. #

Image resizing: Please note that currently the forum software does not resize avatar or signature images for you. However, this can easily be done with free applications or through any number of internet websites designed solely to create avatars or signature banners from larger images. #

Uploading an avatar: As a service to you, we allow you to upload an avatar to our server, where it will be hosted for you. You can also point to an external URL for our server to upload the image directly from that location. Only 1 avatar can be stored per user account, so if you update your previous avatar will be lost. Please ensure you save a backup of your avatar if you wish to upload a new one. You can change your avatar HERE#

Moderators will remove any image which does not meet the above requirements. If you become a repeat offender, your ability to display an avatar at all may be removed. Images of a pornographic nature will also result in you being suspended from the forums. #

Private Messaging

All rules relating to posting apply equally to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings or partial or whole removal of posting privileges. #

Posting

Respect others. You are encouraged to voice your opinions, but exercise restraint, tolerance and respect. Posts that are abusive, hateful or intolerant of the differences of others may result in removal of material, warnings or partial or whole removal of posting privileges. #

Members should remember that this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic or generally offensive text, images, links, or pictures of a sexual nature, depictions of graphic violence or gore etc. will not be tolerated. If you think it might be offensive or might be inappropriate for a work environment, err on the side of caution and do not post it. #

You must not post defamatory material. Defamation includes anything you post that contains an imputation that might damage the reputation of another person. Defamatory material posted on the forum reflects negatively on the forum and the rotary community in general and will be removed without notice. We take no responsibility for defamatory material and we reserve the right to assist those who have complaints about such material to take action directly against the person responsible.

More guidance on this issue is found in the vendors/products section rules.

If you have a complaint about material published on this forum, please notify an Administrator or Moderator immediately. #

Posts are to be made in the relevant forum. Post in the correct section. Do not post in more than one section. Stay on topic. Keep personal comments or discussions to email, PM or chat rooms. Repeated abuse will lead to action being taken against a member. #

No Post Whoring. Posts that do not add anything to the topic being discussed and that are made in an attempt to increase post counts will not be tolerated by us or your fellow members. #

Members must respect copyright. Any material reproduced on this forum, either by directly posting or hyperlinking must carry full attribution - author, publisher, date, link. If you post information off other forums/blogs/websites, you must credit the original author and the forum/blog/website source. #

No Spam. No tolerance. You will be banned indefinitely for spamming. #

AusRotary is not a general classified ad site; please do not post for sale ads for your used car (unless it's one of the allowed types), mobile phone or your used furniture, etc. These types of ads will be removed. See the For Sale rules for more. #

Please include a descriptive subject for your new topic. People shouldn't have to open the topic to find out what the topic is! #

Search. AusRotary has an extremely useful search feature, if used correctly. Many questions that new members might have will already have been answered - we recommend that you do a search first before posting a question.

There are 4 ways you can effectively searching for information:

Using the inbuilt search tool which features a complete of terms from the forum database. This can used to narrow searches to particular sections, users, topic titles, or periods of time

Using the inbuilt Google search tool which is accessible from the top navigation bar and advanced search page. This searches using Google's indexing of the AusRotary site and can often sometimes find a relevant topic when the inbuilt search engine cannot.

Using Google or another external search engine and limiting the search results to this site by using the following tag at the end of your search query:

SECTION SPECIFIC RULES

Off Topic

Your post may be moderated or deleted without warning, but you may PM us for an explanation. However respect our decision as final. Do not post up new topics asking why another thread was locked or deleted. We will remove them immediately - please PM us politely instead. #

Be respectful of others, we’re all from different backgrounds, so please realise we all have different opinions, attitudes and beliefs. This includes no public abuse or slander to any forum member, or non forum member/company. No exceptions! This is not a flamezone nor a whorehouse. #

No nude and/or offensive pics to be displayed. Please remember many use this forum during work hours and more importantly this forum is to be suitable for all ages and gender. All content must be to a safe for work standard. #

Threads will be deleted without warning or explanation if they are about certain 'no go' topics, including, but not limited to: porn, warez, torrents or other P2P filesharing, DVD/CD/console decryption or chipping, any other form of piracy, rebirthing, stealing cars, or how to do any other illegal activity. If you want to talk about these topics, there are plenty of places you can go. We must have this policy as admin may be liable for certain comments or actions if strict moderation is not adhered to. #

For sale items that are not permitted in the trading sections are not permitted here either. All ads and links to items on Ebay etc will be removed. #

Workshops, Vendors & Products

Trader Feedback

MODERATION POLICY

The AusRotary moderators try to be fair and consistent. Generally, moderation is invisible and if you don't see any moderation that means everything is running smoothly. If you do see a moderator intervene it is because things have gotten out of hand. When we intervene we take a broad-brush approach and it is possible that posts that were a mixture of allowed and disallowed content may be deleted. #

Members are requested to bring issues of non-compliance etc to a moderator by using the Report Post feature. This can be done by selecting the exclamation mark icon in the top right corner of posts and following the prompts. The moderators donate their time to the forum as volunteers so please do not abuse their good nature by raising trivial issue. Members must not act as 'back seat moderators'. #

Deletion of posts & topics

If administrators or moderators delete a thread, we will usually inform the thread starter unless it is obvious that the thread was started in violation of the forum rules. #

If we delete posts within a thread we will generally not inform the users whose posts were deleted as it is too time consuming. #

Warnings & bans

Members who contravene any of the rules as stated above may be warned. What happens after a first warning is IF a moderator or admin gives you a 2nd warning, you get banned for a week. Then, IF you get a 3rd warning you get banned for a month. Then, if you get a 4th warning, your account is locked. #

If you are banned, you cannot re-register, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban or registering a new email account to evade an email ban. Circumvention also includes posting using another member's account to post from while banned or an existing user posting on your behalf. If we discover a banned user is using a non-banned user's account, we may ban both users. Any attempt to do any of these things will result in an instant, permanent ban #